Tribute to Christoffer Carstanjen
In June, I attended a barbecue at Mr. Pack's house on Hermon with the remaining GEECS. Chris was there and he and Mr Pack cooked up a storm. He had told us years earlier that his degree was culinary arts, and he was certainly demonstrating that.
I was back at NMH at the time for the 2001 graduation, and Clint, another alumni back at the time, was staying at Chris' place.
The day after the barbecue, I brought Clint back to Chris' place and I left him there with his bike. Chris was not home, and I didn't see him again before going back home to Canada.
When Chris showed up on NMH's scene in 1996, he was working either in the Cutler server room or the help desk in Cottage 3. Mike, Zach, and I used to go down and bug him there, helping out with fixing computers, talking, or whatever else was going on at the time. He rapidly became one of the three faculty advisors for GEECS along with Mr. Pack and Mr. Schweikert and attended nearly all the meetings we managed to hold, sat with us in the dining room, and was the life of the party.
In not too long, he became largely responsible for SWIS and informed me that, because of my poor academic standing, I wouldn't get to be one of the SWIS ops, a position I'd coveted since I'd arrived at the school in '95. He administered fairly and with tremendous enthusiasm.
In the seven and a half months since this tragedy, I've been trying to convince myself that it didn't happen. I see the footage on the television and I think "computer animation" or anything else to pretend it isn't so.
Chris, you will always be in my thoughts, from the motherboard on your front licence plate, to your never-ending smile (well, except when I bugged you *too* much), to all that you taught me about the computers and servers you worked with.
David Graham
NMH class of 1999
About Chris. Originally posted on AmericanMemorials.com in September, 2002. Reposted here 2019-11-21.
Posted at 12:52 on September 11, 2002
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